Amazon's Astro 'disaster,' Netflix's first game studio buy, and the strange backstory of "Slice"

In early August, some of you caught mention of plans we made to host an event on Thursday, November 11, our first in-person get-together in nearly two years. We abruptly *stopped* talking about this because of the Delta variant. (By mid- to late August, hosting an evening inside Salesforce Tower, where we were collectively headed, didn't seem like a great idea.) 

Then we discovered Stable Cafe in the Mission district of SF, whose garden is a magical spot. It's spacious. It's tree-studded. It has garden lights and heat lamps and a giant fireplace, so readers, we are going to do this, and we're going to have a blast. 

Note that you need to show proof of vaccination (Stable Cafe rules). Our abundantly patient partner in the evening, Eclipse Ventures, has also offered to provide every attendee with a new test from Lucira Health, one of its now-public portfolio companies. (Thank you, Eclipse!)

Note that we still have the limit the number of guests and a lot of seats are already gone, owing to surprisingly resourceful readers who continued to find the Eventbrite we never took down(!), so don't wait too long to sign up. More details soon.:)

Amazon hosted a hardware event this morning; here are all the new products it announced. (You might want to read this before ordering its home robot, "Astro.")

Inside Facebook, teams of employees "have for years been laying plans to attract preteens that go beyond what is publicly known, spurred by fear that Facebook could lose a new generation of users critical to its future," reports the WSJ in its newest installment about the social media giant.

Secureframe makes it quick and easy to achieve SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance. With their guided workflows and one-click integrations, they automate the entire compliance process, from readiness to report. Get compliant in weeks, not months. Schedule a personalized demo today at Secureframe.com.

Peter Relan is not exactly a household name, but he has seen a lot over the course of his career and enjoyed a fair amount of success. A Stanford grad who logged time at Hewlett Packard and Oracle before becoming the CTO of the ill-fated, bubble-era company Webvan, Relan has, in more recent years, become known in founder circles for creating three "low-volume, high-touch incubators" that have punched above their weight.

The very first class back in 2007 included founder Jason Citron who, at the time, was developing a social mobile gaming company, OpenFeint, that he subsequently sold in 2011 to the social gaming platform Gree of Japan for $104 million. 

Relan, who played operating partner, owned half the company, and when Citron almost immediately decided to start a second company that he would later call Discord, he headed straight back to Relan to help build it. (Relan's other "graduates" include the social gaming company Crowdstar, which sold to Glu Mobile in 2016, and Agawi, an early game streaming company that sold to Google in 2015.)

Relan long ago moved on from gaming and is now focused on climate change, equality, and the "ethics of technology," but he talked with us recently about his relationship with Citron. (Relan sat on Discord's board until last year.) He also said he has "two big things brewing -- one in AI and one in climate change," so watch this space for more information. In the meantime, you can hear our conversation here or read lightly edited excerpts from it below.

You launched your accelerator, YouWeb, around the same time as Y Combinator got underway, but it was structured very differently.

Every year, we were like, let's just [partner with a] few entrepreneurs here, and we'll give them a year instead of the traditional three months, and we'll co-create. So we don't have hundreds of companies. Over 15 years, we've incubated about 30 companies.

More here.

Anji Pharma, a three-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based biotech that's focused on diabetes, chronic kidney disease and constipation, has raised $70 million in Series B funding from the venture firm CR Capital. FierceBiotech has more here.

Coalition, a four-year-old, San Francisco-based cybersecurity insurance company, has raised $205 million in Series E funding co-led by Durable Capital, T. Rowe Price and Whale Rock Capital. The company, now valued at $3.5 billion, has raised a little more than $500 million altogether. TechCrunch has more here.

Conexiom, a 20-year-old, Vancouver, British Columbia-based company that sells sales order and invoice automation software as a service, has raised $130 million led by Warburg Pincus, with added participation from Iconiq Growth and Luminate Capital.GeekWire has more here. 

Elligo Health Research, a five-year-old, Austin, Texas-based outfit that aims to expand patient access to clinical trials, has raised $135 million in Series E funding. Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Ally Bridge co-led the round, joined by Norwest Venture Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners, and Syneos Health. MedCity News has more here.

Gem, a four-year-old, Bay Area-based recruiting platform, has raised $100 million in Series C funding at a $1.2 billion valuation to accelerate its growth. The round was led by ICONIQ and included participation from earlier backers Greylock and Accel and new investors Sapphire Ventures and Meritech Capital. The new capital brings the company’s total funding to $148 million. TechCrunch has more here.

Highnote, a 1.5-year-old, San Francisco-based credit card platform, has raised a combined $54 million in seed and Series A funding, it announced today. Oak HC/FT led the Series A and co-led the seed with Costanoa Ventures, with additional participation from XYZ, SVB Capital, WestCap and individual investors. TechCrunch has more here.

Multiverse, a five-year-old, London-based startup that offers professional apprenticeships which combine instruction with paid work (the company, formerly known as White Hat, was cofounded by Tony Blair's son), has raised $130 million in Series C funding. D1 Capital Partners and Bond led the round. The WSJ has more here.

Stellar Health, a 3.5-year-old, New York-based point-of-care workflow tool for healthcare providers, has raised $60 million in Series B funding led by General Atlantic, with participation from Point72 Ventures and Primary Venture Partners. More here.

Acceldata, a three-year-old, San Jose, Ca.-based data observability platform, has raised $35 million in funding led by Insight Partners, and was joined by March Capital and earlier investors Lightspeed, Sorenson Ventures and Emergent Ventures. VentureBeat has more here.

Arize AI, a two-year-old, Mill Valley, Ca.-based startup that touts itself as “the first ML observability platform to help make machine learning models work in production," has raised $19 million in Series A funding. Battery Ventures led the round, joined by earlier investors Foundation Capital, Trinity Ventures, The House Fund and Swift Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

Dance, a 20-month-old, Berlin, Germany-based subscription-based e-bike business, has raised $19.4 million in new funding led by Eurazeo, with participation from HV Capital and BlueYard, among others. TechCrunch has more here.

Kytopen, a four-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based startup that's aiming to commercialize its system for accelerating engineered cell therapy production, has raised $30 million in Series A funding. Northpond Ventures led the round, joined by The Engine, Horizon Ventures and Mass Ventures. Endpoints News has more here.

Nomad Homes, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based digital platform that helps people buy and finance homes in Europe and the Middle East, has raised $20 million in Series A funding co-led by 01 Advisors and The Spruce House Partnership. A group of new and earlier investors also participated, including Goodwater Capital and Precursor Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.

NovaSignal, an 8.5 year-old, L.A.-based brain health assessment startup whose FDA-cleared ultrasound technology assesses real-time cerebral blood flow, has raised $37 million in Series C1 funding co-led by Alpha Edison and Reimagined Ventures. More here.

Omaha National, a five-year-old, Omaha, Ne.-based insure-tech startup focused on workers’ comp for small and mid-size businesses, has raised $45 million in Series B funding. Accomplice led the round, joined by HighSage Ventures and Tull Investments. More here.

Swan, a 2.5-year-old, Paris-based banking-as-a-service platform that partners with SaaS companies, marketplaces and other fintech startups so they can offer white-labeled banking features, has raised $18.7 million in Series A funding led by Accel. Earlier backers Creandum and Bpifrance also joined today's round. TechCrunch has more here. 

Vytelle, a six-year-old, Hermiston, Ore.-based livestock genetics services startup, has raised $13.2 million in Series A funding co-led by Open Prairie and Fulcrum Global Capital. AgFunder news has more here.

Burro, a four-year-old, Philadelphia, Pa.-based maker of a collaborative farming robot, has raised $10.9 million in Series A funding. S2G Ventures and Toyota Ventures co-led the round, joined by F-Prime Capital and the Cibus Enterprise Fund. TechCrunch has more here.

Dataships, a two-year-old, Dublin, Ireland- and Marin, Ca.-based SaaS company that specializes in automating compliance with data privacy laws, has raised $3 million in seed funding co-led by The Urban Innovation Fund and Lavrock Ventures. The Irish Times has more here. 

Eternal, a new, L.A.-based NFT marketplace for trading Twitch streamer clips, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding, including from NFX, Mark Cuban, Coinbase Ventures, Gary Vaynerchuk, Dapper Labs and Arrington Capital. TechCrunch has more here.

Qovery, a two-year-old, San Francisco-based platform that aims to help developers deploy their applications faster, has raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by Crane and Speedinvest. TechCrunch has more here.

The Military Veteran Startup Conference hosted by Context Ventures on 2/4/22 in San Francisco is a must-attend-in-person event for military veteran entrepreneurs. The event is free for military veteran (spouses and) entrepreneurs. Practically every venture capital firm that is veteran-led or invests in veteran founders has confirmed its attendance. The event is about maximizing founder growth so will primarily consist of relevant 1:1 meetings with successful military veteran founders and VCs. Enlist here.

Venture capital firm Vertex Ventures, which is backed by Singapore state investor Temasek, expects to raise at least $400 million next year for a new fund focusing on Southeast Asia and India, a senior executive tells Reuters. More here.

Night School Studio, the independent game developer known for narrative-driven titles like “Oxenfree,” announced today it has been acquired by Netflix. It's the first games studio the streaming giant has purchased. TechCrunch has more here.

Toyota Motor Corp’s Silicon Valley research arm says it has acquired automotive operating system software company Renovo to help accelerate the development of fully-autonomous connected vehicles. “I am hoping to shave off years and months to our minimum viable product launches,” James Kuffner, the head of Toyota’s Woven Planet subsidiary said during a press briefing. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed; Renovo had raised $14.5 million from investors, per Crunchbase data. Reuters has more here.

Amplitude, a nine-year-old maker of product analytics software, today became the second direct listing (after Asana) for venture firm Benchmark, which has touted the approach. “I think we’ll see more deals within our portfolio and more generally,” Eric Vishria, a partner at Benchmark and an Amplitude board member, tells CNBC.

Ferrari has hired Apple's former design chief Jony Ive as it readies its debut into full electric vehicles, says the WSJ. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks the U.S. government should steer clear of trying to regulate the crypto market. “It is not possible to, I think, destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement,” Musk said at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills earlier today. Musk added separately, “I wouldn’t say that I’m a massive cryptocurrency expert. I think there’s some value in cryptocurrency, but I wouldn’t say it’s the second coming of the Messiah.”

Apple AirTags can be weaponized, according to a security consultant.

AngelList has launched a set of tools to help founders start and run their companies, including end-to-end incorporation, banking services, and cap table tools.

Amazon Prime members bristle at Whole Foods’s new $9.95-per-delivery surcharge: "It’s just rude."

How lip-syncing got real.

Can you get your invoice paid?

How a teenager’s drawing wound up in a Jasper Johns painting at the Whitney.

The 26(?) most exciting new EVs hitting the road.

Create your own high-tech haunted house: a shopping list.

What do JAZZ Venture Partners, Obvious Ventures, Fifth Wall, Maven Ventures, and Fika Ventures have in common? They were all emerging funds featured at the RAISE Global Summit over the past five years. The RAISE Global Summit helps LPs identify and invest in the best emerging venture funds, before they make it big. Which new rising stars will emerge from this year's class? Click here to request an invite.